Hurricane Ida hits Nicaragua's Caribbean coast (2nd Roundup)

Nov 5, 2009, 21:32 GMT

Managua/Miami - Hurricane Ida hit Nicaragua's Caribbean coast with heavy rain Thursday and led to the evacuation of thousands of people, officials said.

Civil Defence chief General Mario Perez-Cassar said the authorities were coordinating to send food, blankets and medicine for at least 20,000 people in the area.

The damage caused by Ida was not immediately quantified but was said to be substantial, although no casualties were immediately reported.

According to the Miami-based US National Hurricane Centre (NHC), Ida was category one on the five-level Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale when it made landfall.

It subsequently became a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 95 kilometres per hour and was expected to weaken further, to a tropical depression, by Friday.

Ida was likely to affect eastern Nicaragua and eastern Honduras for a couple of days.

Perez-Cassar estimated that 6,000 people were impacted by Ida in a 50-square-kilometre area on the Nicaraguan mainland. Of these, at least 3,000 had to be taken to emergency accommodation.

On Corn Island, 40 homes were destroyed along with three schools and two churches, said Mayor Cleveland Webster, adding that power lines and the drinking water supply network were damaged.

In the municipalities of Sandy Bay, Karawala, Kukra Hilla, Laguna de Perlas, El Tortuguero and the mouth of the Rio Grande, about 6,000 people were taken to 54 shelters.

Karawala Mayor Junior Colleman said Ida destroyed or damaged 80 per cent of the homes and public buildings.

Perez-Cassar said the authorities were worried about 42 people on the Miskito Cays archipelago, since they had not been able to evacuate them Wednesday.

He noted that 700 Civil Defence personnel were active in rescue efforts, which were extremely difficult in Nicaragua's Caribbean region where overland access is difficult and transport is possible largely through the waterways or small planes.

The NHC warned that rainfall from Ida could lead to dangerous flash floods and mudslides, as well as large waves.

The hurricane season, which officially lasts until the end of October, has passed with no significant damage across the region so far this year. Until the arrival of Ida, no hurricane had made landfall in the Caribbean this season.

Last year, the storms caused severe damage, especially in Cuba and Haiti.